I can't believe that I've been opining on sports as much as I have: Kaepernick, Flores, Djokovic, and now Kamila Valieva, and Sha’Carri Richardson. With Kaepernick (critical), it's been mostly on Twitter: I've had 2 issues: a second-string quarterback who had lost his starting position for performance issues and then complained about alleged blacklisting, and his gimmick of knee protesting during the national anthem. Now, as a libertarian, I didn't have an issue with Kaepernick protesting on his own time, but I also believe in honoring your contractual agreements and he violated his. (Among other things, military branches advertise for eligible young adults, and Kaepernick's attention-seeking gimmick poses a problem for them. In one of my journal posts, I argued against Djokovic's exclusion from the (tennis) Australian Open over vaccination policy. (Djokovic had been recently infected by COVID-19, presumably acquiring natural immunity.)
I dedicated an entire post on the ex-Miami pro football head coach, Brian Flores. Flores had been fired after 3 no-playoff seasons heading the Dolphins. That's not unusual in sports, although Flores came close to the playoffs the last 2 seasons. There was more to the story if you look at press reports at the time of the termination with the team saying there were chemistry issues between Flores and others, including but not restricted to the general manager and quarterback. Interpersonal issues can result in termination (I know from personal experience). And I have to say the nature of his allegations against owner Stephen Ross, in particular the owner, after Flores' 0-7 start his first season, offered him a bonus to lose enough games to secure the #1 draft pick, is a scotched earth allegation, which if true, could result in a forced sale of the franchise, not to mention a possible prison sentence. Personally, I don't buy it (although GML guys accept it at face value). Just a reminder; Tom Brady was a sixth-round draft pick--which meant every team passed over him a handful of times. Meanwhile former Heisman winner QB Johnny Manziel lasted for 248 pass attempts over 2 seasons. So Flores would have you believe that Ross is personally pissed at him over the fact that the Dolphins' 5 wins in 2019 dropped their draft position to #5. And apparently his witness may be the same general manager he doesn't get along with, and just maybe he's exaggerating how much their boss doesn't like Flores? I mean, if Ross didn't like him after his first season's resulting draft, he must be really pissed over his draft choices after 2 winning seasons....
Now to be honest, I don't know why any owner is allowed to have any equity or other interest in the gaming industry, especially in the aftermath of the Black Sox scandal. Obviously if Ross knew his team would lose, he could bet against them. That's the real point. Many people, including myself, have been fired unfairly. I'm sure Flores feels he's been treated unfairly. What that has to do with alleged race discrimination, I don't know. I don't burn bridges; I try to respond professionally to adverse circumstances. I don't know what went on between Flores and Ross, but I know if the alleged incident happened to me, I would have resigned or at minimum reported it to the commissioner if I cared about the integrity of the game. I wouldn't be sitting on it for 3 years to be used in the event I ever got fired.
Flores has his defenders, and it's possible my impressions are wrong. But going after a boss who hired you for 3 years, knowing you were black, and teams that interviewed but didn't hire you, as racist? I've personally interviewed dozens of times without getting the job. Rejection isn't easy on one's ego. (That also applies to interpersonal relationships, like asking a woman on a date.) Who in the hell would ever want to interview Flores now. knowing if you didn't make him an offer, you're just "another racist" in another lawsuit? To me, it has nothing to do with race. It has to do with character, a guy with a sorry attitude, a lack of professionalism and self-control. I wouldn't hire him to coach my old high school football team.
Now about the 15-year-old Russian world-class figure skater Kamila Valieva. If you don't know the story, she had a test for banned performance enhancing drugs back in December, which provided a recently-reported positive result for "trimetazidine -- a drug used to treat the heart condition angina, which causes chest pain due to poor blood flow to the heart. It is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) banned list." It's important to realize that she has repeatedly passed doping tests before and after the solitary finding, including at the Olympics. (I do not know about false positives for said drug test.) My inner uncle feels bad for the young girl who is getting hit with negative coverage; she can't account for the test results, speculating somehow her grandfather's meds contaminated hers.
I think she's getting hit by the leftist media, which has been Russiaphobic since Clinton's failed election campaign in 2016. A lot of athletes feeling no empathy for a "cheater" taking away their opportunity to place with their honest efforts and got honored at the games for their efforts. But Kamila's tests have been clean, which means she's relying on her natural abilities, and one test is not a trend.
In the sour grapes column is Sha’Carri Richardson, a black American female sprinter who was a favorite to win in last year's COVID-deferred Olympics but got disqualified after testing positive for marijuana. And she tweeted bitterly over the alleged double standard of Kamila's case. (Actually if Kamila wins, any medal presentation for the event may be deferred.) Another talking point is the active agent in marijuana, unlike Kamila's alleged drug use, is not performance-enhancing.
I responded in a recent tweet, which I'll rephrase here. I remember last year that people were comparing Richardson with Phelps, the most prolific gold medalist of all time. Phelps was widely known for a photo showing him smoking marijuana. Phelps was suspended and lost a sponsor over the party photo incident. But the apple-to-apple comparison is both of them were tested over competitions, Phelps passed his, and Richardson failed at her Olympics trial. (Performance enhancement is only one of 3 criteria for doping.) Richardson knew they would be testing for THC, and she got caught. She has no one to blame but herself. She may disagree with the use of the test but apparently it was more important for her to indulge her marijuana habit than win a gold medal.
